The notion of “Centre of Gravity” applied
to the world of art refers to the continuous play between equilibrium
and uncertainty to create new and meaningful conceptual and aesthetic
worlds. The multiplicity of trends in contemporary art and the emergence
of new geographical centres of cultural significance have introduced
relevant transformations in pictorial and sculptural languages and
have also facilitated the balance between centre and periphery,
creating new centres of gravity outside the classical hegemonic
ones.

Interrelating many levels of meaning and multiple
aesthetic perspectives, the exhibition entitled Centre of Gravity
marks certain significant moments in the aesthetic production of
the past few decades, presenting artists of international renown
such as Haluk Akakçe, Pilar Albarracín, Ghada Amer,
Janine Antoni, Christian Boltanski, Monica Bonvicini, Louise Bourgeois,
Anish Kapoor, Gülsün Karamustafa, Rem Koolhaas, Jeff Koons,
Juan Muñoz, Kemal Önsoy, Santiago Sierra, Richard Wentworth
and Maaria Wirkkala.. The exhibition is held coinciding with the
celebration of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial and other
cultural events that complement one another, turning the city into
a genuine international centre of gravity. While the Biennial diligently
pursues its consolidation as a reference for new artistic developments,
Istanbul Modern, which opened on 11 December 2004, is taking its
first steps with the aim of institutionalising the memory of modern
art produced in Turkey and of bringing to Istanbul outstanding works
by established artists who have revealed some of the aesthetical,
social and political concerns of our convulsed world. The title
of this first international exhibition also plays with the idea
of Istanbul Modern as a new gravitational centre in relation to
its geopolitical area and to the global context of new international
museums. The artists are presenting works subtly united by an invisible
common thread: that of reflection on equilibrium, either in the
physical, the psychological, the cultural or the political sphere.

All the works displayed are propounded as centres
for condensing meaning in order to transform the exhibition into
a place for symbolic exchange between artists and the community.
Helping to form critical and sensitive citizens and to promote new
aesthetic and political dialogues are undoubtedly fundamental tasks
for museums. Aesthetic experience implies a breach in the automatic
reading of signs, for it reflects and subverts representational
space proposing new gazes, new reflections. Paul Valéry wrote
that poetic creation is the creation of expectation, and political
hope for social change can also be included in this will. Today,
it is necessary to encourage new relations based on desire, to establish
transferences with people, objects or symbolic systems to favour
the creation of that ‘transferential plasticity’ that
will help us recover and heal the world in which we live. Expectation,
pleasure and reflection are what we hope this exhibition, within
its bounds, will help to generate.

On the occassion of the exhibition a full colour catalogue has been
produced. In addition to the essay by the curator, texts by Homi
Bhabha, Louise Bourgeois, Christian Boltanski, Rem Koolhaas, Jan-Erik
Lundström and other significant writers will be included together
with an interview to the Nobel Physiscs prize Ilya Prigogine realized
by Hans Ulrich Obrist.